Of the Box

There’s a Reason Time Seems to Speed Up as You Age – But It’s Possible to Slow It Down

Stop the ride, we want to get off.

Ask an older person to recall their most vivid memories, and there’s a good chance that many of them will come from the same time period – between the ages of 15 and 30.

That’s the time period when six of the 10 most important events in a person’s life typically happen, according to a 2004 study: starting school, going to college, getting their first job, falling in love, getting married, and having children.

Psychologists call this phenomenon the “reminiscence bump”, and it helps explain why our earlier years seem so much more memorable than life after 30.

“The key to the reminiscence bump is novelty,” Claudia Hammond wrote in her book Time Warped.

“The reason we remember our youth so well is that it is a … time for firsts – first sexual relationships, first jobs, first travel without parents, first experience of living away from home, the first time we get much real choice over the way we spend our days.”